Nearly two months after casting rumors began to swirl, TNT has officially announced that The Walking Dead star Jon Bernthal has been cast in the lead role in L.A. Noir, the drama pilot from Frank Darabont.

Executive producer Robert Kirkman and star Jon Bernthal are understandably evasive as to whether a report of the actor’s casting on L.A. Noir means Shane may not survive the second season of The Walking Dead.

Writer/director Frank Darabont offers some insight into his newly greenlit TNT pilot L.A. Noir, and addresses his firing from The Walking Dead: “I don’t understand the thinking behind, ‘Oh, this is the most successful show in the history of basic cable. Let’s gut the budgets now.’ I never did understand that and I think they got tired of hearing me complain about it.”

TNT has ordered a pilot from ousted Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont based on L.A. Noir, a book chronicling the epic, decades-long battle between police chief William Parker and mobster Mickey Cohen in 1940s and ’50s Los Angeles.